Berlin Job Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Berlin Job Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 7, 2013

How tolerant you are of films that introduce a large and unwieldy number of characters, replete with freeze frames and subtitles announcing the characters’ names while a narrator gives out little dollops of information about them, may well determine how much you like The Berlin Job (originally titled St. George's Day, an evidently too parochial name for American audiences), a fitfully bracing gangster slash heist outing that spends much of the first section of the film trotting out one player after another and giving them their moment in the sun, to the point that some are going to wish they had a flowchart to keep track of them all. The two main characters are Mickey (Frank Harper), who is also the narrator (and introducer of all the characters) and Ray (Craig Fairbrass), cousins who are also comrades in arms in one of London’s biggest organized crime rings.

The otherwise rote making of featurette included on this Blu-ray as a supplement makes an interesting case that the gangster film is to Britain what the western is to the United States. If that’s the case, Berlin Job is more closely akin to one of those old Republic or even Universal programmers from the 1940s than it is to more ambitious fare like the Anthony Mann or even Sam Peckinpah forays into the genre. It’s obvious that co-writer and director Frank Harper has a fondness for films like Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and for prospective audience members who also like Ritchie’s hyperbolic popcorn movie, there may be enough secondary pleasures here, including some nicely visceral (if quite vulgar) performances, to warrant a viewing.

Berlin Job Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Berlin Job is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. This digitally shot feature boasts a very impressively sharp and sleek looking image, one that benefits from really solid contrast, helping the film to navigate its tendency to exploit either dimly lit or downright dead of night environments. Colors are lush and accurate looking and fine detail is extremely commendable in close- ups.

Berlin Job Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Berlin Job's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix offers the fairly consistent narration up front and mixed far forward, but surround activity increases appreciably in the straighter narrative moments, where bursts of gunfire, exploding cars and action sequences offer the chance for a glut of well done sound effects. Dialogue is clearly presented, and overall the track boasts excellent fidelity and wide dynamic range.

Berlin Job Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making of Berlin Job (1080p; 20:19)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:56)

Berlin Job Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Berlin Job is patently derivative, but it's also not a bad way to spend an hour and a half or so. The performances by a gaggle of great British character actors are quite bracing, and despite the dialogue often being nothing much more than a string of "F bombs", there's a fair amount of tension built up as the gangsters try to outsmart other gangsters in a drug deal gone bad.